What Went Right, Wrong for WVU Football During Offseason

Rich Rodriguez believes he can lead WVU to instant success, something that actually seems more possible in this era than when he first took over the Mountaineers over two decades ago. However, his confidence is not shared by most outside of the West Virginia program.

While dissecting every major college football team, a group of ESPN writers placed West Virginia towards the bottom of the Big 12 when ranking the offseason work to date.

Below is what they feel went wrong for WVU:

“Rodriguez is working on one of the more dramatic roster flips in the Power 4 during his first offseason back at West Virginia. The Mountaineers have had 47 scholarship players hit the portal during this transition. A bunch of proven starters moved on after the firing of former coach Neal Brown, including Rimac (Virginia Tech), running back CJ Donaldson Jr. (Ohio State), receiver Hudson Clement (Illinois) and linebacker Josiah Trotter (Missouri). Rodriguez and his coaches have loaded up with more than 40 newcomers via the portal to replace them, but this is going to be quite a reset for the roster with a ton of new faces filling the two-deep.”

Conversely, they also did provide what went right as well:

“In this era of college football, it’s better to execute a roster makeover of this magnitude before Year 1 rather than after. The new staff has won battles for some coveted players in the portal including Robinson, who earned AAC Defensive Player of the Year last season at UTSA, and brought quality starters such as Vaughn and DB Fred Perry with them from Jacksonville State. They also managed to keep several key players like QB Nicco Marchiol and running back Jahiem White out of the portal. But these Mountaineers are going to look practically brand-new in 2025. If a lot of these waiver wire pickups work out and they can develop good depth, West Virginia could catch up quickly to their Big 12 peers.”

WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose

But all things considered, they ranked West Virginia 13 out of the 16 Big teams in terms of the quality of their offseason, taking into account the complete overhaul that was necessary and the additions that were made.

Of course, no way-too-early projection should be taken too seriously and there are always teams who seemingly contend out of nowhere. Curt Cignetti leading Indiana to the College Football Playoff in his first year and Arizona State going from worst to first to win the Big 12 title are perfect examples for WVU fans to point to from 2024.

“I think our staff has done a good job. I think we have one or two spots left open, but in this ever-changing world of college athletics, it’s been really crazy. But I’ve said this many times. The goal post will move, we gotta move with it,” Rodriguez told WV Sports Now’s Mike Asti directly about having to make tough decisions on who to cut and who to bring in.

“We gotta do everything we can to try to improve our roster every day, not every month but every day.”

For a related story, West Virginia currently owns one of the lowest odds to win the Big 12 title.